In the past, oppression in America wore white gloves and spoke in whispers;today it stands naked and screaming in our faces.

“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. ”

— 1984 , George Orwell (INGSOC Slogans)

“A great many laws in a country, like many physicians, is a sign of malady.”

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom: it is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”

—William Randolph Hearst

“Anarchy is the sure consequence of tyranny; for no power that is not limited by laws can ever be protected by them.”

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
—George Orwell

George Orwell 's 1984 is generally accepted as one of the great literary masterpieces of the 20 th Century. The protagonist of the story is a middle-aged man named Winston Smith who struggles against the leviathan of the ruling government known as INGSOC [English Socialism] in Oceania (the name of his homeland).

The underlying themes of the novel were born of Orwell's experience fighting in the Spanish Civil War, WWII and the looming specter of what we now call “globalization.” The figurehead of Smith's world is a man known simply as Big Brother—probably an amalgamation of Hitler, Franco and Stalin.

The “Party,” as the ruling class is called, has effectively shaped its citizens to mindlessly and neatly fit into what is commonly viewed as the contemporary sociological model, i.e. upper, middle and lower class (in the book called “high, middle and low”). The distinction between these classes is so clearly defined and elucidated as to border on the grotesque. The driving aim of the “Party” is to annihilate the ideas and desires of the individual, thereby creating a populace capable of only a very narrow set of reactions and emotions. The “Party” intends to create a population of robots—with much success.

As the mottos (“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”) indicate, INGSOC exploits the benefits of perpetual war (war is peace), the importance of the collective (freedom is slavery) and the plastic nature of information and history (ignorance is strength). On this last issue Orwell was fixated, as evidenced by statements such as, “ He who controls the past commands the future. He who commands the future conquers the past.” This is all interconnected with the utilities of Big Brother, like making predictions about his constituent's future and if they do not come to pass simply changing the historical record about what was said, molding them to fit what did come to pass, consequently always being right.

The parallels with what we are seeing today in America are alarming and make Orwell and his efforts appear prophetic to the point of near clairvoyance. One can not ignore the parallels of the crass use of war based on personal gain under the auspice of an imminent threat; what has in America recently become a clearly unsubstantiated speculation; namely the supposed connections between Iraq and Al Queda and the presence of weapons of mass destruction that have proven to be at the very least a falsehood if not an outright fabrication.

Recently a new documentary by Michael Moore ( Roger & Me , Bowling For Columbine ) called Fahrenheit 9/11 has brought the depth of corruption and dishonesty of our government to the front of people's consciousness and directly addresses the aforementioned points. One of the most shocking accusations (revelations?) in Moore's film is that the U.S. Patriot Act (one of the most effective tools in America's history used to strip us of our civil liberties) was such a long and comprehensive piece of legislation that not one of the members of the House of Representatives actually read it before passing it into law.

The country's reaction to the events of September 11 th , fear and solidarity allowed the Bush Administration to write and pass, at record speed, the U.S. Patriot Act, which

broadened the use of wiretaps and allows the government to hold suspected “terrorists” without explanation or evidence. These are only a couple of the most pronounced examples of the civil liberties we've lost since the destruction of the World Trade Centers.

Here is one section from the Patriot Act, of which there are 10, taken from the table of contents: *

To read the entire act you can go to: http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/hr3162.html

The act was passed in the House of Representatives on October 24, 2001. The majority of the act is simply jargon related to other federal protections, such as Sec. 225. Immunity for compliance with FISA wiretap (the gist being the suspension of legal protections regarding the right to privacy and giving free reign to the powers that be to listen in on private conversations without having to bother with warrants or even probable cause). The prevailing sense of urgency felt by Americans after 9/11 allowed the Patriot Act to be passed with little objection from the vast majority of them; if anyone objected they were often branded a terrorist sympathizer, or in some extreme cases even collaborators.

The act has trampled our rights to privacy and due process, allowing our “protectors” to oppress us at a level never before seen in this country. In the past, oppression in America wore white gloves and spoke in whispers; today it stands naked and screaming in our faces.

Fear was the justification for the passing of the intrusive act; shouldn't history have taught us that whenever anyone tells you they're doing something unpleasant to you for your own good it's a safe bet that it's actually for their own benefit?

Locally, on a much less significant level but to no less chilling effect, we have a series of proposed regulations by Palm Beach County Commissioners which would make it criminal to walk your dog on a beach or wear low-riding hip-huggers ; the running joke is that plumbers could be ticketed for their signature cracks. They are also proposing a mandate that would force clubs and bars to close at 4 a.m. instead of 5 (see our Nightlife column in this issue for more on this). This seems to be a trend in South Florida, what with officials in SoBe attempting to close the beach at 2 a.m. and all.

At present, the lawmakers in Palm Beach County are “looking into” how best to implement these laws. County Commissioner Adele Greene told us it was presently going through the petitioning process and nothing concrete is pending as of yet. I was chilled by her statement about how seeing young men hike up their pants when they see her coming made her, and I quote, “proud.”

In Louisiana Legislature a bill is waiting to be voted on that would punish anyone caught wearing low-riding pants with a fine of up to $500 or as many as six months in jail or both.

If you spend any time reflecting on this proposed law you may be struck by the absurdity of it. Think about it abstractly for a moment. If you're caught wearing pants deemed too low or too provocative (deemed by whom?) you face a huge fine and possibly jail time. Now I'm no expert, but that sounds like a violation of a pretty basic civil liberty. Your right to wear the sorts of clothes you want seems like the sort of battle you can expect to lose at a Catholic school, but not on the streets you walk everyday as a taxpaying, “free” and allegedly autonomous American.

The fact that our elected officials would want to control the types of pants we wear seems almost like fascism, albeit it's mildly fascist—nowhere near the scope or severity of Mussolini—but fascist nonetheless. If these laws come to pass we will have a real “fashion police” who will have the right to imprison you if you don't fit their subjective standards, or at the very least give you a hefty fine.

There is an old Latin axiom, “De gustibus non disputandum est,” which roughly translated means, “In taste there is no dispute.” According to these new proposed laws, the Roman Empire was way off base . With all that fanatical freedom to make decisions about what you like or don't like it's no wonder Rome burned down and the empire collapsed.

As I said earlier, one of the basic ends of INGSOC was the complete erasure and eradication of individuality. These proposed laws seem to me a new trend in obscene micromanagement where our elected officials find the need to outlaw things they find offensive to their sensibilities and tastes. An abuse of power? I think so.

In Orwell's world we have a government that attempts to make its citizenry as homogenized and soulless as possible, even going so far as to change how people speak and think based on a gradual destruction of their language and their ability to choose. When a group of citizens has the ability to make any sort of subjective decisions, they are a danger to the collective.

The ironic thing about the newest trends in America is their close relation to socialism run rampant—a political model conservatives claim to hate so deeply. But the ruling class in America, as in the U.S.S.R., has simply taken the worst of socialism and applied it for their personal benefit. One of the most glaring features of Orwell's model was the absolutism of the ruling class and the insignificance of the people, i.e. the lower class, and their ability to know what's good for them.

The parallels with the trends in America are striking to me. The complete obliteration of individualism and the disparity between the upper and lower classes we are experiencing in America is so close to what we see in 1984 that you may be shocked if you feel compelled to read it (again?). Winston Smith eventually succumbs to the manipulations of the powers that be, but, instead of this having the effect of rendering our situation hopeless, I feel the book serves as a warning for all of us. The warning that if we are not vigilant and unwavering, we'll face a dark and soulless future in which very few will decide what's—on the surface—“best” for all; this “best” really being an extension of the desires of those few, with little regard for the rest, sacrificed on the altar of mass decorum for the profit of those very few in control.

INGSOC's model instructs its people to believe what they know is not true. This is called DoubleThink, it teaches people to hold two contradictory ideas in their minds with absolute acceptance. A prime example of this is the axioms that, “War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.”

Only INGSOC has the ability to determine what is right and what is wrong, thereby taking away its population's need for abstract or critical thought.